Mass. toolmaker Built-Rite adding space, jobs

By: Frank Antosiewicz

April 5, 2013

LANCASTER, MASS. — Built-Rite Tool & Die Inc. and its molding divisions, Reliance Engineering and LSR Engineering, are in the midst of a $1.3 million expansion that includes additions to two buildings and new equipment.

The custom mold-making and design company last month broke ground on a 5,000-square-foot addition to its 17,900-square-foot manufacturing facility. Built-Rite President Craig Bovaird said he expects the site to be ready in three months. The added space will provide room for white room molding.

The latest addition is being funded through a $500,000 loan provided by MassDevelopment, the state’s finance and development agency, which said the project will create eight jobs and bring total employment to 70.

The expansion follows a 10,000-square-foot expansion that Built-Rite made to its adjacent building that houses its toolmaking operations. That expansion was completed in the last few months. The company also added a 250-ton, custom-designed and retrofitted compression molding machine, a Haas computer numerically controlled milling center and some other equipment.

Bovaird said that Built-Rite’s ability to design and build molds for injection, compression, transfer and liquid silicone rubber molding is the driving factor behind its success. The company and its molding divisions serve a variety of niche markets including aerospace, medical, defense and electronics.

“We’re a very niche-type company. We mold the commodity resins, but we also do some very high-end materials” such as polyetheretherketone, he said.

The Lancaster-based company does a lot of insert and overmolding, works with high-temperature materials and can meet tight tolerances, Bovaird said. The company has seen growth in the U.S. as well as internationally, especially in Asian markets.

Built-Rite was founded in 1984 and added molding about 14 years ago. Bovaird said the firm has had steady sales increases of 15-20 percent the last eight or nine years. The company runs three shifts, five days a week.